I looked into this for a while with some sun people and did not find any good answers about it. No one could guarantee anything.

They say they aren't doing try and buys anymore, but you should be able to get a demo unit from a sun VAR and bang on it for a while.

Asa

On Jun 8, 2010, at 1:32 PM, Jim Bucks wrote:

Hi All,

I was wondering if anyone here has used a Sun x4540 as a direct, or NFS (10 Gb Fiber) storage device for 3 - 7 High Def Edit Systems (running Tiger / Leopard / Snow Leopard and Final Cut Pro 6.x)?

We're looking at inexpensive options (as compared to an EMC or Apple SAN) to have work groups connect to the x4540 instead of our current setups with the older Xsan.

We think this would work, but would feel better about it if we could chat with anyone who has already done it.

Thanks,

Jim

-- Jim Bucks - IT Director www.coloradostudios.com Colorado Studios, Mobile TV Group, HD Net 8269 E. 23rd Ave. Denver, CO 80238 Main 303-388-8500 jbucks@coloradostudios.com Direct 303-542-5520 _ StudioSysAdmins-Discuss mailing list StudioSysAdmins-Discuss@studiosysadmins.com http://mailman.studiosysadmins.com/mailman/listinfo/studiosysadmins-discuss

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Can you elaborate on requirements. What type of HD (uncompress, 10bits, ProRes) ? how many streams per systems ? With graphics ?
And what is your older xsan setup ? not worth upgrading ?

serge

On 2010-06-10, at 3:47 PM, asa hammond wrote:

I looked into this for a while with some sun people and did not find any good answers about it. No one could guarantee anything.

They say they aren't doing try and buys anymore, but you should be able to get a demo unit from a sun VAR and bang on it for a while.

Asa

On Jun 8, 2010, at 1:32 PM, Jim Bucks wrote:

Hi All,

I was wondering if anyone here has used a Sun x4540 as a direct, or NFS (10 Gb Fiber) storage device for 3 - 7 High Def Edit Systems (running Tiger / Leopard / Snow Leopard and Final Cut Pro 6.x)?

We're looking at inexpensive options (as compared to an EMC or Apple SAN) to have work groups connect to the x4540 instead of our current setups with the older Xsan.

We think this would work, but would feel better about it if we could chat with anyone who has already done it.

Thanks,

Jim

-- Jim Bucks - IT Director www.coloradostudios.com Colorado Studios, Mobile TV Group, HD Net 8269 E. 23rd Ave. Denver, CO 80238 Main 303-388-8500 jbucks@coloradostudios.com Direct 303-542-5520 _ StudioSysAdmins-Discuss mailing list StudioSysAdmins-Discuss@studiosysadmins.com http://mailman.studiosysadmins.com/mailman/listinfo/studiosysadmins-discuss

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SGI is engaging in a new try and buy for storage specifically. http://www.sgi.com/products/storage/raid/lsi.html

We are now selling LSI Storage models that are more 'generic' - no SGI Firmware so to speak, so these models will run in your environments.

We also just introduced a storage system similar (almost identical) to Sun X4540 called ISS3500, we'll load it with RedHat, Win Server 2008 or Novell SUSE Linux - it'll match what you need most likely and if you want a try-n-buy, we offer a 30-day trial.

http://www.sgi.com/products/storage/servers/iss3500.html

Find your right rep by calling 800-800-7441

SGI is a whole new company now, money in the bank and many new product offerings. Scale out renderfarm servers with low PUE and workstations with up to 120 render core, or 96 core with an NVidia card mounted in the admin node.

Check it out. I know you don't like plugs here, but it should be worth a look, we also have very competitive pricing on supermicro boxes with 3 years of on-site support served by parts depots around the world. They are called XE servers: www.sgi.com/products/servers/altix/xe/

We have new one with 4-hot-swap nodes that's 2U called: C2112-4TY14 A 1U that can take 2 x 16x cards for graphics called: C1103-TY12 (this one gets great I/O with a couple risers for HBAs as storage server too).

I know you don't like unsolicited sales types plugging on here, but I couldn't resist.

Thanks (and sorry),

Shelby Zavoral SGI Gov East (but a user/fan of animation/editing for years)....

Good Luck!

-----Original Message----- From: studiosysadmins-discuss-bounces@studiosysadmins.com [mailto:studiosysadmins-discuss-bounces@studiosysadmins.com] On Behalf Of asa hammond Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2010 2:47 PM To: discuss@studiosysadmins.com Subject: Re: [SSA-Discuss] Has anyone used a Sun X4540 on a 10 Gb Networkfor Final Cut Pro "edit stations"?

I looked into this for a while with some sun people and did not find any good answers about it. No one could guarantee anything.

They say they aren't doing try and buys anymore, but you should be able to get a demo unit from a sun VAR and bang on it for a while.

Asa

On Jun 8, 2010, at 1:32 PM, Jim Bucks wrote:

Hi All,

I was wondering if anyone here has used a Sun x4540 as a direct, or

NFS (10 Gb Fiber) storage device for 3 - 7 High Def Edit Systems (running Tiger / Leopard / Snow Leopard and Final Cut Pro 6.x)? > > We're looking at inexpensive options (as compared to an EMC or Apple SAN) to have work groups connect to the x4540 instead of our current setups with the older Xsan. > > We think this would work, but would feel better about it if we could chat with anyone who has already done it. > > Thanks, > > Jim > > > -- > Jim Bucks - IT Director www.coloradostudios.com > Colorado Studios, Mobile TV Group, HD Net > 8269 E. 23rd Ave. Denver, CO 80238 Main 303-388-8500 > jbucks@coloradostudios.com Direct 303-542-5520 > _ > StudioSysAdmins-Discuss mailing list > StudioSysAdmins-Discuss@studiosysadmins.com > http://mailman.studiosysadmins.com/mailman/listinfo/studiosysadmins-disc uss

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Nice, I've always had a soft spot for SGI.

• Brian

On Jun 10, 2010, at 1:11 PM, Shelly Zavoral wrote:

SGI is engaging in a new try and buy for storage specifically. http://www.sgi.com/products/storage/raid/lsi.html

We are now selling LSI Storage models that are more 'generic' - no SGI Firmware so to speak, so these models will run in your environments.

We also just introduced a storage system similar (almost identical) to Sun X4540 called ISS3500, we'll load it with RedHat, Win Server 2008
or Novell SUSE Linux - it'll match what you need most likely and if you want a try-n-buy, we offer a 30-day trial.

http://www.sgi.com/products/storage/servers/iss3500.html

Find your right rep by calling 800-800-7441

SGI is a whole new company now, money in the bank and many new product offerings. Scale out renderfarm servers with low PUE and workstations with up to 120 render core, or 96 core with an NVidia card mounted in the admin node.

Check it out. I know you don't like plugs here, but it should be
worth a look, we also have very competitive pricing on supermicro boxes
with 3 years of on-site support served by parts depots around the world. They are called XE servers: www.sgi.com/products/servers/altix/xe/

We have new one with 4-hot-swap nodes that's 2U called: C2112-4TY14 A 1U that can take 2 x 16x cards for graphics called: C1103-TY12 (this one gets great I/O with a couple risers for HBAs as storage
server too).

I know you don't like unsolicited sales types plugging on here, but I couldn't resist.

Thanks (and sorry),

Shelby Zavoral SGI Gov East (but a user/fan of animation/editing for years)....

Good Luck!

-----Original Message----- From: studiosysadmins-discuss-bounces@studiosysadmins.com [mailto:studiosysadmins-discuss-bounces@studiosysadmins.com] On Behalf Of asa hammond Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2010 2:47 PM To: discuss@studiosysadmins.com Subject: Re: [SSA-Discuss] Has anyone used a Sun X4540 on a 10 Gb Networkfor Final Cut Pro "edit stations"?

I looked into this for a while with some sun people and did not find
any good answers about it. No one could guarantee anything.

They say they aren't doing try and buys anymore, but you should be
able to get a demo unit from a sun VAR and bang on it for a while.

Asa

On Jun 8, 2010, at 1:32 PM, Jim Bucks wrote:

Hi All,

I was wondering if anyone here has used a Sun x4540 as a direct, or

NFS (10 Gb Fiber) storage device for 3 - 7 High Def Edit Systems (running Tiger / Leopard / Snow Leopard and Final Cut Pro 6.x)? > > We're looking at inexpensive options (as compared to an EMC or Apple SAN) to have work groups connect to the x4540 instead of our current setups with the older Xsan. > > We think this would work, but would feel better about it if we could chat with anyone who has already done it. > > Thanks, > > Jim > > > -- > Jim Bucks - IT Director www.coloradostudios.com > Colorado Studios, Mobile TV Group, HD Net > 8269 E. 23rd Ave. Denver, CO 80238 Main 303-388-8500 > jbucks@coloradostudios.com Direct 303-542-5520 > _ > StudioSysAdmins-Discuss mailing list > StudioSysAdmins-Discuss@studiosysadmins.com > http://mailman.studiosysadmins.com/mailman/listinfo/studiosysadmins-disc uss

__ StudioSysAdmins-Discuss mailing list StudioSysAdmins-Discuss@studiosysadmins.com http://mailman.studiosysadmins.com/mailman/listinfo/studiosysadmins-disc uss __ StudioSysAdmins-Discuss mailing list StudioSysAdmins-Discuss@studiosysadmins.com http://mailman.studiosysadmins.com/mailman/listinfo/studiosysadmins-discuss

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